AEW has made a habit of rising to the occasion and often over-delivering on its pay-per-views. That was far from the case at Worlds End.
What fans got at Nassau Coliseum on Saturday was a top-heavy show with too many meaningless matches, cold stories and one curious booking decision that spoiled one of its most anticipated contests.
It was a rare pay-per-view without any of The Elite, FTR and the Lucha Bros and it showed as the matches just seemed to lack some of the pace, frenzy and variety that has made AEW stand out.
There was some good stuff.
The Devil was finally revealed to complete one of the company’s better long-term stories, AEW has a true heel world champion again in Samoa Joe, Adam Copeland and Christian Cage delivered a throwback match to be proud of even with its odd ending and Eddie Kingston picked up the biggest win of his career and is dripping in gold.
The rest well, we will get to that.
Here are five takeaways from AEW Worlds End:
You Devil You, Bay, Bay!
It was Adam Cole all along under The Devil mask with help from Matt Taven, Roderick Strong, Mike Bennett and the biggest surprise in Warldow. After MJF was choked out by Samoa Joe — his hand hitting his hip and not dropping all the way the third time it was lifted in either a mistake or lame protection of the champ — the Devils’ men hit the ring and attacked him.
Cole told them to hit him with the chair and not MJF — who protested back — when the lights went out. Cole was then sitting on the chair head down as the other men ripped off their masks. MJF was stunned and emotional as Cole held up the Devil mask to end three-plus months of storytelling.
Only those involved will know what this was supposed to look like had Cole and MJF both not gotten hurt. While it neatly and correctly ties up MJF and Cole’s friendship story, there were few other legitimate people and without the world title involved the treat doesn’t seem as serious. Cole came out in all black and did not deliver the Dynamite Diamond ring in time, giving Joe the opening he needed to win the match.
All in all, it was a fine way to end MJF’s record reign and AEW now has a heel champion to feud with babyfaces. It was in MJF’s hometown. He got emotional sitting on the turnbuckle after a very New York “Our scumbag” video entrance package. It was the completion of his babyface turn and we now get to see what it looks like minus the belt.
He and Joe wrestled a physical drama-filled match, but you could see how much pain MJF was in as he worked with multiple injuries. He still was able to lift Joe up, took a Muscle Buster on the ring apron and nearly had the match won after an F5.
While this all wasn’t as super dramatic as one would have hoped, it’s needed fresh chapter for MJF, who at his most vulnerable will need new friends.
Spoiling a good thing
You only get one shot at Adam Copeland’s first championship win in AEW and it feels wasted along with a very good No Disqualification match. Copeland actually ended Cage’s three-month reign as TNT champion with his friend’s Killswitch finisher after throwing Nick Wayne over a flaming table. The win got a big pop and felt like a big moment.
Then AEW pulled some WCW-level booking as Killswitch (formerly Luchasaurius) attacked Copeland right after the match and was set to cash in the TNT title shot he earned with his battle royale win on the preshow. Cage cut him off and convinced him to turn the contract over to him so he could spear and pin Copeland to win the championship back. Killswitch will eventually turn on Cage, but it might be hard to keep fans invested in waiting to see a moment they already experienced.
The match itself was excellent and filled with violence fittingly filled with tables, ladders and chairs. Copeland leaped off a railing from the 100 sections onto Cage and Wayne to chants of “holy s–t”. Later in the match, Cage climbed the ladder Copeland brought into the ring and the champ delivered a Sunset flip powerbomb off it. A lot of the moments were callbacks to Copeland’s WrestleMania 22 hardcore match with Mick Foley.
Wayne and his mom both interfered in the match, the latter breaking up a pin attempted after Copeland speared Cage through a table in the corner. The fact those words can be written is a testament to both men’s injury journeys, but they might have an uphill climb with this story from here.
KING-ston of New York
For a second, leave out the fact AEW booked an entertainment tournament just for Eddie Kingston to win his Ring of Honor and New Japan STRONG titles back and win the new Continental championship in a fine underdog story. It’s pretty darn cool to see Kingston dripping with gold in his home state and getting a hug from friend Jon Moxely after beating him for the first time and running through the whole Blackpool Combat Club in the process.
This match was everything it needed to be, filled with strikes you could hear and Kingston trying to live up to Moxley wanting to get his best. At one point, Kingston barely fought out of submission and fell on the ropes out of exhaustion to break the hold. It didn’t look good for him in the later portions of the match until he finally landed his spinning back fist to put Moxely out for good. Kingston leaves in a better position than he’s ever been and will now work across Ring of Honor, AEW and New Japan.
Together Again
Maybe CJ Perry being hospitalized in Mexico with an MRSA infection in her finger kept AEW from teasing her turning on Andrade El Idolo, but it coming out of nowhere made the finish a little bit better. You could at least see Perry getting frustrated with her client Andrade’s inability to put her husband away as the contest went along.
This was a solid, hard-hitting match. Miro got his Game Over submission on Andrade but his arms slipped off twice allowing his opponent to get to the ropes to break it. Andrade could not get the Figure Eight fully extended on the first try. He did the second time, but Perry dove into the ring to sweep out his arms to break the hold.
A report by Wrestling Purists before the show said the belief is this is Andrade’s last AEW match and he is believed to be heading back to WWE as early as Monday on Raw. This story played out like that and maybe Miro is finally ready for a big push in AEW with Perry back by his side.
Needs a jolt
Something just feels missing from AEW’s women’s division just as rumors of Mercedes Mone’ coming swirl. The ‘Timeless” Toni Storm character is working as the Long Island crowd was chanting her name during the match as technically the heel against Riho. But right now her theatrics, slower pace and lack of real story around her didn’t make for the most exciting match. Luther interfered twice before getting tossed by the ref. Storm eventually won with a DDT and Mariah May joined her after to celebrate. AEW may need to start booking Storm as a babyface with a deeper story for this to truly click.
The fans wanted to love Abadon vs. Julia Hart, even chanting “this is spooky”. But we got very little spooky, no mist and just Skye Blue interfering on Hart’s behalf. Hart came up a little short on her moonsault on the finish too — her feet landing too flush and negating the impact as she retained the TBS championship
Kris Statlander and Willow Nightingale fought but their preshow match got clunky late and the women struggled to complete some of their power moves. It took Nightingale three tries, the second and awkward drop, to complete her Babe Bomb finisher to end the match. The two friends hugged each other after, though Stokley Hathaway on commentary didn’t seem happy.
Other matches
Sammy Guevara, Chris Jericho, Sting and Darby Allin over Ricky Starks, Big Bill, Will Hobbs and Konosuka Takeshita
This was an odd match. It felt like Chris Jericho and Sting seemed to grind the match to a halt at times when they were in. The best moments came from Sammy Guevara, Darby Allin and Ricky Starks flying around the ring at the end and when Konosuke Takeshita was showing off his power. Guevara hit his 630 from the top rope and pinned Starks with him and Jericho in line for an AEW tag team title shot next.
Swerve Strickland over Dustin Rhodes
Before the bell rang, Swerve Strickland stomped on Dustin Rhodes’ ankle from the top rope as Prince Nana’s held it to a cinderblock on the outside. The block even crumbled. Amazingly the crowd was still chanting “Swerve’s House!”
Rhodes, who was filling in for an injured Keith Lee, limped back to the ring and the match started. Rhodes moved around a lot better than someone should after the ankle spot they did and it really ruined the violence of it. It turned into a decent 10-minute match that would have been more effective as a three or five-minute affair and Swerve just decimated Rhodes. He stomped on a sitting-up Rhodes from the top rope to score the pin.
Bryan Danielson, Claudio Castagnoli, Daniel Garcia and Mark Briscoe over Rush, Jay White, Jay Lethal, Brody King
Maybe good things are coming in 2024 for Daniel Garica, whose entrance was interrupted by Bryan Danielson. He later showed some guts by tagging in on Danielson unprompted. He then ended up getting the win for his team, pinning Jay Lethal with a counter into a small package. Can see Garcia finally getting a true program with Danielson?
Hook over Wheeler Yuta to retain the FTW championship (Zero Hour)
Yuta twice avoided a Redrum as the two used plenty of weapons in this FTW rules match. Hook eventually smashed a hockey stick over Yuta’s back and used a broken piece to finally put on the Redrum to make it tap.
Notes
- A vignette aired for the return of Serena Deeb
- Dante Marte will face Orange Cassidy for the International championship on Dynamite
Biggest Winners: Samoa Joe. Eddie Kingston
Biggest Losers: Adam Copeland/Kris Statlander
Predictions: 8-2
Grade: C+
